Fireside Literary Series: Sun Yung Shin

Do not let the thicket of the first few poems in Sun Yung Shin's collection Skirt Full of Black turn you off from venturing further into the book. While the early ones are at times a bit impenetrable (like spending a night dreaming someone else's dreams when, hey—aren't your own hard enough to understand?), the later poems open up with Shin's clever turns of phrase, fresh imagery, and observations about immigrant life and life as a transracial adoptee. In her trademark lines, Shin plays words against each other so that the evolution of the sound of the words highlight their meanings, as in "Flower I, Stamen and Pollen," "Your marriage in illumination. Edge the ultimate. Immaculate." The lactose intolerant will nod knowingly at her revelation: "Milk turns to cramps and I/know my childhood is finished." At first look, the short poems based on the characters in the Korean alphabet seem like a throwaway exercise. What they reveal are Shin's love of words, her complicated relationship with her Korean heritage, and her ability to create sharp imagery laden with emotion. She writes of one Korean letter, "O," "gold necklace, unhooked, touching my palm;/endurance of unfurled fiddlehead fern;/first crack across your wedding plate."
Thu., Feb. 21, 7 p.m., 2008